Since 2013 the Office of Digital Learning (formerly titled Department of Online Education and Support) has supported the development and maintenance of online courses and fully online programs as well as the professional development of faculty to teach using digital pedagogies/technologies. Since 2019, ODL has
supported not just online graduate programs, but all of the college's online offerings, including those in undergraduate offerings connected with the Online CJBS Transfer Program. In addition to the LMS Support personnel paid for by the Student Technology Fee, these recurring funds are used to pay faculty to develop new online courses, to revise and update older online courses, to consider active learning strategies that enhances their skills in teaching in online or hybrid modalities, to fund recurring subscriptions to software and services such as Wistia, VoiceThread or Perusall, and to pay for the State Authorization agreement (NCSARA) that allows out-of-state students to enroll in our online programs. All of these expenses allow us to maintain high-quality online courses and instruction.
Please note, we are discontinuing our licenses with Calendly and Constant Contact and plan to purchase licenses for the most recent version of Camtasia.
As a result of the pandemic, all undergraduate and graduate students have now benefited from the online resources supported by this recurring tech fee, whether that's having their courses in Brightspace shells or emailing with LMS support when there is a problem, taking a fully online or hybrid course designed by a faculty member supported by ODL instructional designers, or engaging in personalized instruction to enhance the online/hybrid teaching and learning experience.
Much of the work of ODL occurs online, but their office is in BMW 610.
The college has already benefited tremendously from the investments in online infrastructure and faculty development in teaching online and will continue to do so, particularly now as the demand for undergraduate online courses rises. These ongoing fees ensure that online courses are more navigable, engage students in their own learning, are embedded with high-quality videos supported by easy-to-use software, and allow students who may not be able to come to campus to still earn college credits.
Built into the proposal is course maintenance, skills development, as well as hardware and software updates when necessary.
Holly Davenport, Interim Director of ODL, oversees operations of equipment, quality of course development and redesign, and faculty development.
The first goal to "Educate and support undergraduate and graduate students at every step of their John Jay journey" could not be achieved without quality online courses, the software faculty use in those courses embedded into Brightspace, and faculty trained in teaching online. The third goal is to "Embody and
promote our values of equity, diversity, and inclusion," with the objective that we are to "Achieve equitable student success across all learning modalities." We have as a specific goal increasing student success in online courses, and many of the
activities and supplies listed here are being deployed with that goal in mind.